France offers Iraq help once sovereignty restored

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin says France is ready to help with the reconstruction of Iraq once sovereignty is awarded to a provisional government there.

"We want to do it in response to an Iraqi government," Mr de Villepin told French Europe 1 radio, insisting that a properly representative provisional government should be in place by the end of the year.

He did not elaborate on the point.

"I hear people talk about (a government) by summer 2004 -- that is much too late."

"How many deaths must we count before we realise we must change approach?" he asked, affirming France's view that a handover of sovereignty to the Iraqis would help ease the tensions in the country.

France, along with Germany and Russia, opposed military action in Iraq and did not offer any aid for Iraq's reconstruction at a recent international donors conference.

Paris has wanted the United Nations to play a bigger role in Iraq, which is currently run by a US-appointed civilian government.

France has also pushed for sovereignty to be handed over to Iraqis as soon as possible.

In Washington on Wednesday, President George W Bush directed Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer to speed the transfer of postwar authority to the Iraqi people, drawing the administration's policy closer to that of its sceptical European allies.